


In A Galaxy Not So Far Away

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Primeval
Genre: Action/Adventure, Brave New World - Freeform, Drama in space, Gen, Trapped in space, living in the future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 16:06:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6383341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Becker, Connor and Abby are more than used to being trapped on the other side of anomalies,  but their latest adventure is definitely not business as usual.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In A Galaxy Not So Far Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StealingPennies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StealingPennies/gifts).



> Written for stealingpennies for having come third in primeval100's 300th challenge! The prompt was for an AU setting – space or historical and “best laid plans”. This isn't strictly speaking AU – except for the parts that are, but it is set in space. Originally posted to Livejournal in 2013.

Connor ducked down behind a packing crate, cradling his arm to his chest. He didn't think it was broken, but he wasn't willing to take the chance, not when an Ankylosaurus was still prowling about. He had no idea where Abby was. Or Becker. Or the anomaly. In fact, the list of things he didn't know was really starting to get out of hand.

The Ankylosaurus hit something with its tail that sent vibrations shooting through Connor's feet. He needed to get out of there, though he wasn't entirely sure where there was. One moment he'd been tracking some pretty big prints – well, watching Becker track some prints – and the next there was a dinosaur between him and safety, and safety won. The fact that safety had been diving through an anomaly was neither here nor there. He knew Becker had followed, and he was pretty sure that Abby had too, but then it all became a little hazy.

He did remember rolling down an embankment which felt like it was made of sand. And he did remember flipping over, and hurting his arm, as he went careening into another anomaly that must have been laying in wait at the bottom of the embankment. But he doesn't remember whether Becker and Abby followed him that far. Part of him hopes they did, and part of him hopes that they got themselves somewhere safe.

He scooted around the packing crates and tried to find some clue as to where he was. Some newspapers would be nice – they always showed up in films just when the hero needed them, why not in reality? Because reality sucked, Connor decided as nothing in the room he was in proved any help at all.

Then he looked up and spotted a window. Carefully keeping out of the eye line of the Ankylosaurus he peeked through it, then stood up fully, not caring whether he was seen or not.

“Oh, my, god,” he muttered to himself. “I'm in space.”

*****

Abby flinched as something dripped onto her face; she had the awful feeling it was blood. She didn’t know where she was exactly, but it smelt awfully like an abattoir.

The last thing she remembered was chasing after Connor, and then it all got a bit hazy. She remembered watching him vanishing through the anomaly and knowing that she couldn't just watch him disappear again. She remembered Becker shouting something, but the blood in her ears was pounding too loudly for her to work out what he was trying to tell her.

And now she was lying on her back in a pool of, something, with something equally horrible feeling dripping on her. She could hear snuffling off to one corner, whatever it was was large and she hoped, not hungry.

With a full body shiver she suddenly moved herself up, wiping at her face with the back of her sleeve and tried to look around. There was one window off to the side but it didn't appear to be providing too much light. Other than that she was in the dark.

Slowly she found the wall and trying not to attract whatever creature was in here with her, she slinked across it, keeping her hands in front of her so she didn't walk into anything. She headed towards the window, hoping that that would help her find her bearings.

It didn't.

* * * * *

Becker raised his gun at the raptor in front of him and pulled the trigger before it had time to lunge at him. He rolled to the floor, coming up in time to hit the second raptor in the face with the butt of his gun, sending it to the ground where he stamped on it, making sure it wouldn’t be waking up any time soon. He tried not to think about what Abby would say if she could see him right now.

There was a sound behind him and he moved, quick but not quick enough, as someone did to him as he had done to the raptor. He saw the outline of a figure, all in black, and then all he saw were stars.

* * * * * *

“Right,” Connor muttered to himself. “Okay, this is, this is, well, this is new.”

He sat down heavily on the floor, his body shielded from the Ankylosaurus by more of the boxes. Now he could see that they were made of a metallic material that shifted in the light and every so often the words “Property of Astrocore” flashed along the side.

“Space,” Connor murmured to himself. “I'm in space.”

He looked around the room more carefully now, peeking at the Ankylosaurus which was now making itself at home in the opposite corner. Not only did he have to try and find a way off the – oh my god spaceship – but he also had to get the dinosaur off there before it did any serious damage. Could dinosaurs cope on spaceships? What if they were trapped there for months without food? Would whoever was piloting the ship notice they had some extra weight? What if they were aliens and didn’t speak any English?

Connor put his head between his knees and started to count to 10. It was something that Sarah had taught him, and he'd had call to use it more in the last few months than ever before. Everything was changing so much and now he'd got himself into another fine mess.

“Okay,” he finally said to himself, “what would Stephen do?”

Stephen would be brave.

Stephen would also, Connor conceded as he got up to his hands and knees to properly investigate the room, probably rush in and do something incredibly foolish and make it look really cool. But Connor knew his limits.

The door he hadn't noticed till it opened made a suitably futuristic swishing sound and Connor peered around a box in time to see several armed people enter, all dressed in black with silvery looking shoes that clunked onto the floor and echoed tightly inside his head. It was the first time he'd given any thought to the fact that he wasn't floating around himself.

“What the hell is that?” he heard a woman ask.

“Ankylosaurus, according to the Temple Database,” a man replied, a tablet in his hand.

“Temple?” Connor murmured. Coincidence, surely?

“Scanning for carbon based lifeforms,” another, more robotic voice said. There was then a hush and a rustling of fabric and Connor decided the best thing to do would be to introduce himself.

Five people turned towards him as he stood and he gulped; they all looked vaguely humanoid – that was a good sign wasn't it?

“Who are you?”

“Connor Temple. Um, take me to your leader?”

* * * * *

The next thing Abby did was look about for something she could use as a weapon. Somehow in all the confusion she must have dropped her gun, she certainly didn't have it with her now. The smell in the room was starting to make her feel a little light-headed, and she tried to definitely not think about where she was putting her feet, and hands, as she moved slowly along the wall. She could feel a wetness behind her back as she moved along, but decided that was better than facing whatever creature she could hear snuffling in the corner without any way of defending herself. Something told her there was no way it was a herbivore.

A light blinking caught her attention as she moved around the corner of the room and found herself facing a computer console, hidden behind a pillar she hadn't noticed in the dark. She tiptoed over to it and took a gamble by pressing what looked like a space bar.

The computer zinged into life and the monitor flashed on – clearly it had just been in standby mode. Gratified that at least something was going well for her she looked at the different sections. HOME - LOCATION – ALARM – DEPARTMENT – LOGIN

Logging in was definitely out, and alarm didn't sound too good, so she pressed her finger against Location.

SUBSECTION D

“Great, really helpful,” Abby muttered, before spotting the map icon next to it. Pressing that she found herself staring at a schematic. She zoomed in on the “YOU ARE HERE” button and blinked rapidly a few times as her eyes continued to adjust to the brightness of the monitor compared to the darkness of the room.

SUBSECTION D - LOWER LEVEL – SPECIES CATEGORY 8 CONTAINMENT

She had no idea what a species category 8 was, and she really didn’t want to find out.

She searched the map as quickly as she could for a way out, wishing not for the first time that Connor was here with her. But worrying about where he, or Becker, was wasn't helpful right now.

Instead she tried to manipulate the map so it made sense in her head. Finally she found the exit – a glowing icon showed it to be directly opposite where she was now standing.

“Okay, good,” she murmured, then paused, listening out for any movement from the creature. If she was lucky, it might be in a cage anyway – surely no one would let it roam about if it was really dangerous?

She hesitated though. What if someone was waiting right outside. How would she explain how she got there – especially considering she had no idea how she'd got there herself.

She took a deep breath and pressed down on HOME.

THE HART STARLINER flashed across the screen, followed by a video, sans sound, which showed the ship in its all glory. The spaceship. Abby hadn't hallucinated earlier, she really was in space.

How the hell were they going to get out of this?

* * * * * * *

Becker groaned and tried to sit up, but his hands and legs were strapped firmly down and he could tell he wasn't going to be going anywhere soon. Instead he tried to get his bearings but after a moment he realised that he was hanging upside down.

“Hey,” he called out, voice croaky and hoarse, “what are you doing?”

“Oh, it speaks,” a voice somewhere in the distance said. “Put him upright.”

The world flipped back to its proper place and Becker felt even more nauseas than he had before.

“Name and rank, soldier.”

Becker tried to focus. “You first,” he said instead, partly because right now remembering his own name was a bit too much like hard work.

“Captain Josiah Harker. Head of Security. Mind telling me how you got into a restricted section?”

“I – uh, what?” Becker asked, and then grimaced; hardly his best opening gambit.

Harker snorted and looked back over his shoulder at someone Becker couldn't quite make out in the distance. “You sure he's one of them?”

There was clearly some sort of non-verbal exchange because the next thing Becker knew was that Harker was getting close enough for him to be able to smell the man's aftershave, and his ARC logo was being ripped off his uniform.

“I hope you plan on paying for that,” Becker said.

Harker just smiled and walked to the back of the room.

Becker's vision started to slowly clear and he became aware of a few things. Like he was clearly being held in a lab of some sort, with oddly shaped bottles that reminded him of Connor's workstation, only this was much more neatly organised. And of course the window looking straight out into space was as clear an indication as any that he wasn't in Kansas any more.

* * * *

Connor looked anxiously around his prison cell. They'd called it a waiting area, but a prison cell by any other name...

The fact that this wasn't the first time he'd been locked up in a cell was actually doing something to bolster his confidence. He supposed because it was so familiar it was helping to settle his stomach. Though it had been rather unfortunate that it hadn't happened _before_ he vomited on one of his guards.

Still, he was sure that somewhere on this spaceship – oh my god, an actual spaceship – Becker and Abby were trying to find him. They had to be on board. Thinking anything else just wasn't acceptable. And what had happened to the anomaly – was that on board too? It had to be. So...

His head started to hurt. If only someone would actually answer his questions. Instead he just felt like a guinea pig. Someone, maybe lots of someone’s, were clearly watching his every move. And it was starting to make him very uncomfortable.

Finally the door in front of Connor slipped open with a satisfyingly Star Trek-like whoosh.

“You're Connor Temple”.

Connor blinked a few times and then looked the woman in front of him up and down. She was wearing some sort of uniform, though he couldn't quite make out the insignia on her arm, and her hair was tied back in some sort of elaborate bun. She did look human though.

“Yes. I told you that.”

“I thought you'd be taller, that’s all.” She moved aside. “Come on, then.”

Now thoroughly confused Connor got up and followed the woman out of the room. “Don't I get your name?” he asked. He tried to take in everything about the corridors he was walking down, but they all seemed very much alike. Confusingly so.

“Captain Verity Campbell. But most people just call me V.”

“Nice to meet you. I think.”

V cracked a smile for the first time. “Don't worry Connor, we don't eat our prisoners on this ship.”

Connor did not feel reassured.

* * * * *

“Let him go.”

The woman’s voice cut through into Becker's consciousness. He hadn't really been aware of falling asleep, but his whole body felt like it had been shoved in a washing machine and left on the spin cycle.

“You sure?” Harker asked.

“Oh god, Becker!”

_Connor._

Becker forced his eyes open as he felt Connor prodding at his shoulder, trying to get him to wake up further. It was a surprisingly effective technique.

“I'm okay, Connor,” he said, though it was blatantly a lie.

“Okay,” Connor replied. “Okay, good. Can we – uh – can we get him out of this?”

V stepped forward and started helping him out of the bed. “Sorry, Captain Becker. My head of security can be a little overprotective of the mission.”

“No problem,” Becker replied, words dripping with sarcasm. He rubbed at his wrists as they were released from his bonds, and gave Connor a cursory once over. “You okay?”

Connor nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.” He started bouncing on the balls of his feet. “You know we’re on a spaceship?” he not quite whispered.

Becker grinned. “Yeah. Wait till we tell Danny.”

Connor's grin grew even wider – he hadn't thought of that.

“Now, did you come alone or are the others with you?”

“Others?” Becker asked, a little warily.

“Professor Cutter, Dr Hart, Miss Lewis, Miss Maitland, Mr Quinn, Mr Lester...”

Becker and Connor exchanged worried glances. “Abby – Miss Maitland, she was with us,” Becker replied. He didn’t think it paid to lie about it; if Abby were in some sort of trouble he'd rather these people knew about it and that they were placed together.

“I see,” V replied. She motioned for someone standing by the door who then disappeared, no doubt on their way to find Abby.

“If she's hurt...” Becker began; he wasn't in any particular position to be making threats, but he wanted this woman to know what trouble he could bring if he had to. V just smiled at him.

“We're not going hurt Miss Maitland, Captain, that really would mess up the timeline.”

Connor seemed anxious to ask a question, but silenced at Becker's look.

“V,” a voice called from the doorway, “a word?”

“Certainly. Why don't you get our guests something to eat and drink.”

Precious seconds alone allowed Becker and Connor to share what information they could. It wasn't much but it did highlight what was most blindingly obvious – there was no way they were getting off the ship without help.

“How do they know us?” Connor whispered.

Becker shrugged. “We're obviously in the future. Maybe we're famous.”

Connor grinned, clearly enjoying the idea. “Cool.”

A young man dressed in a dark blue uniform moved next to them and started pouring out glasses of water and opening what looked to Becker like regulation ration packs. One bite of a biscuit that tasted like cardboard reassured him that some things never changed. The water was welcome though, and he nodded for Connor to eat what he could. No point starving – they might need their energy at any moment.

“Do you think Abby's okay?”

Becker tried to smile reassuringly at Connor. “Abby's more than capable of looking after herself. Maybe you'll even get a kiss out of your reunion,” he added as an afterthought. He enjoyed watching Connor blush. And then fell off the bed he was still sitting on as the ship lurched violently to one side, and the power went out.

* * * * *  
  
Abby had suitably steeled herself for a confrontation with whatever creature was lurking in this room when the ship was rocked by what felt like an explosion and she was thrown to the floor. She braced herself with her right hand, catching something with the palm of her left hand as she went down, cursing as the flesh teared. The creature stuck in the room with her roared in distress and Abby's heart fluttered in her chest; she'd know that cry anywhere. You didn't face down a sabretooth cat and forget about it any time soon.

The ship continued to lurch in all directions and Abby tried to still the panic in her chest – what if the ship was under attack? She'd never know what happened to Connor and Becker, and their friends at home would just add them to the ever growing list of ARC personnel who were lost to time.

The ship gave a final roll and for a brief moment everything up was down, until the ship seemed to revert to whatever passed for normal. Abby pressed her hands down on the floor to give herself some leverage and winced at the pain in her hand. It was stinging rather a lot and she could feel the blood trickling down her wrist even if she couldn't see it. With her unhurt hand she started patting herself down, trying to think if she had anything useful on her. Then she remembered one of Connor's scarves that she'd teasingly pulled from around his neck before the anomaly shout, she'd tied it around her belt. As she removed it and tied it around her hand she flushed as she remembered Danny's comments about wearing favours and was glad no one else had seen it. She didn't understand why no one could see that she did love Connor, just not like that.

Well, probably not like that.

The sabretooth gave a low snort and Abby realised that it was now or never. She stood up and reached out for the wall, trying to reorientate herself in relation to the map she had memorised. She would just have to hope that the sabretooth was locked up and that his cage was still secure. Besides, she'd rather be a moving target any day of the week.

Slowly enough that she could listen out for any signs of movements, but with a quick enough pace that she wasn't leaving herself too open to attack, Abby made it to the other side of the door. She could still feel bits of, she was more than sure of now, blood, dripping down onto her from the ceiling. She'd been trying to ignore the cloying smell but knew it would haunt her for a very long time.

There was just enough light in the room for her to see a button by the door. She hoped that it wouldn't require a thumbprint or anything else to get out. There was a rushed movement behind her and she hit the button, beyond glad when the door opened and she was temporarily blinded by the bright light coming from the corridor. She stepped out of the room and turned around to have a proper look.

She'd been right, and the sight of all that blood almost made her want to throw up. Blood was everywhere, and she could only imagine what a sight she herself looked. Carcasses were strung up to the ceiling and two sabretooths were in plain sight. One, a baby, appeared curled up on a balcony, asleep. The other, definitely adult, was staring down at her. They didn't appear to be separated from her by any bars, but when the adult lazily swiped the air in front of him it buzzed, and she realised that had been the constant sound she'd attributed to the workings of the ship, the sabretooth had been trying to get to her all along.

She stepped further out of the room and the door automatically slid shut. That's when she became aware of people in the corridor, staring at her. They were all dressed in variously coloured military uniforms, and they were all looking at Abby as if she was some sort of laboratory experiment.

“Hi,” Abby said, to the nearest. “I'm um...” She stopped. There really was no easy way of explaining who and what she was.

“Miss Maitland, I presume?”

Abby turned around at the sound of the woman's voice. “How did you...?”

“Good grief,” the woman interrupted. “What happened to you?”

Abby waved towards the door she'd just exited and shrugged.

“Ah, unfortunate. My name's V. If you’ll come with me, I'll take you to Captain Becker and Mr Temple.”

“Connor and Becker? Are they okay?”

“Yes, yes. Come along, please.”

Abby did as she was told.

* * * * *

“Bloody hell,” Becker said, picking himself up from the floor. “What was that?”

He was addressing Harker but it was the soldier who'd brought the food that answered.

“We've probably lost an anomaly,” he explained.

Becker and Connor looked at each other, feeling lost themselves.

“What do you mean, lost one?”

“Well it'll have closed, won't it? They do that, you know.”

Connor nodded. “Right,” he said, slowly. “And that affects the ship, how?”

The soldier looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. “Well, the anomalies power the ship, don't they? It was your idea in the first place.” The soldier paused. “Or, maybe you haven't had the idea yet? Anyway, every so often they close before we're expecting them to. We'll be fine.”

Connor nodded, wide-eyed. Becker tried to think of something to say and failed.

It was at that moment that Abby came in, covered in blood.

“I thought I told you...” Becker began to say to V, even as he and Connor rushed to Abby's side.

“It's not my blood,” Abby said, calming Becker with a bloodied hand to his arm. “Well,” she amended, indicating the palm of her hand, “most of it isn't.”

“What happened?” Connor asked.

“Miss Maitland was unfortunately locked into one of our containment facilities. She was of course in no real danger.” V's bland smile didn't reach her eyes. Connor wondered if she was entirely trustworthy.

Abby winced as Becker took a closer look at her injury. “That's going to need stitches,” he told her. She nodded.

“Doctor, if you would?” V said.

The soldier Becker and Connor had been talking to came forward with what looked like a spray can of whipped cream.

“If you'd just step back.”

“What are you going to do with that?” Connor asked, refusing to move.

“Artificial skin,” the doctor replied. He squirted a little on to his finger. “Knits the wound together and protects the healing process all at the same time. Completely painless and no need for bandages. You can put pressure on the wound area after five minutes, ten and you don't even notice anything was wrong. Miss Maitland invented it.”

“I did?” Abby asked, frowning.

“Yes. Well, for animal treatment really, but it was adapted for human use in 20 -”

“Doctor,” V interrupted, “perhaps we could try not to completely contaminate the timeline?”

The doctor blushed a shade of red Connor had never seen before. “Sorry,” he said. He gently took Abby's hand and sprayed the artificial skin on to her laceration. She, Connor and Becker all peered closely at it as it started to do its work.

“Wow,” Connor breathed.

“A simple mission,” Becker muttered, almost to himself. “Why are Danny's planned missions always the ones that go so spectacularly wrong?”

Connor gave an amused shrug.

“I expect you'd like to go home now,” V said. She moved over to a computer station and began tapping away. The others watched her warily. Surely it wasn't going to be that simple?

Becker got a terrible sinking feeling in his stomach as V's optimistic smile began to turn into a frown.

“What seems to be the problem?” he asked after a moment’s silence.

“Using technology from - “ she stopped herself, but her quick glance in Connor's direction was more than enough of a clue - “somewhere, we can predict when anomalies are going to open and close.” She sheepishly indicated the damage caused by the anomaly's earlier failure. “Well, mostly. And what timelines they will open to. So I can ensure that you will all get back to your time, roughly fifteen minutes after you left.”

“Okay,” Becker said. “And how long will we have to wait for that?”

There was a long silence. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Connor grab hold of Abby's uninjured hand.

“Five years.”

* * * * * *

Life aboard ship wasn't really all that bad, but Becker still liked to indulge in the odd grumble. He'd been assigned to Harker's security team, trained for EVA's – Extra-Vehicular Activity – and even gone out with a team to repair a hole in the solar panel array. He'd taken courses in extraterrestrial diplomacy – aliens had made contact but they were so far away that radio signal was the only way to communicate with them and there was no prospect of actual physical contact for some time to come. He learned about new weaponry, mentally taking notes of ideas to take back to the ARC. He didn't tell them that was what he was doing, but he rather suspected they knew anyway.

Connor was loving life in the engine room and even went through a two week phase of only responding to the name Scotty. He marvelled at the symbiotic relationship between the anomalies and ship and wondered how he could possibly have thought of the idea without having seen it in action first. Which rather made all of their heads hurt.

Abby took the same extraterrestrial diplomacy course as Becker, taught physical self-defence to the new recruits on board, spent time with the medics, learning about the new diseases humanity would face, and the new ways to combat them. But most of her time she spent in the containment rooms.

Locking the anomalies meant they could harness their energy without any creatures coming through. But sometimes they weren't fast enough. So they took care of the creatures for as long as they could. Abby improved the faculties so they were less like cages and more like the creature's home. And when the government of Earth decided that feeding and caring for creatures misplaced by time was too expensive, she helped set up a facility on a newly colonised Jupiter.

They learned that the HART STARLINER was indeed named after Stephen. He'd become something of a philanthropic explorer after his return, according to V.

“His – what?” Becker had asked.

“Just you wait and see,” was all V would tell them.

The ARC project had indeed become public. There had been panic. And infighting between governments. People had died and it had turned very ugly for a time. But humans for once saw more sense in unity than discord and a new era, After Anomalies, was born.

Cutter refused a knighthood. Lester didn't.

Connor and Abby decided they'd sort of make a go of maybe seeing what happened. Becker spent most of his time fighting the urge to bang their heads together.

And then the day came when an anomaly back home opened.

“Thank you,” Becker said, to Harker and V as they waited to send them off. They weren't the only ones. Becker, Abby and Connor had become part of the crew in what now felt like their very short time on board.

“It was our pleasure,” V said. Then surprised them both by giving Becker a hug. “You take care of yourself,” she whispered. “And don't be too hard on yourself. Not everyone makes it home.”

She stepped away and went to speak to Abby and Connor before Becker could ask what she meant.

“You already know too much,” Harker said, shaking Becker's hand. “Just watch yourself, okay?”

Becker nodded. “You too, sir.”

Despite it all, they'd really miss life aboard ship. But they were needed at home. As Connor had pointed out at their last breakfast together, if they didn't go back then the ship wouldn’t exist. So where would that leave them?

“With a massive headache,” had been Becker's only reply, rubbing at his head.

“Thank you,” Abby was saying to Harker, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. “For everything.”

Harker had gruffly mumbled his thanks and moved out of the way.

And then it was just the three of them, dressed in a rough approximation of what they had been wearing when they first arrived, standing alone on the platform above the spinning light of the anomaly. All they had to do was step off and they would be back home. Becker took a deep breath and then took Abby's hand. She did the same to Connor.

And together they jumped.


End file.
